Listen to this article

Japanese advertising giant Dentsu has agreed to acquire an 89 per cent stake in Indian digital agency SVG Media.

Dentsu said its subsidiary Dentsu Aegis Network would acquire the stake in SVG Media Group with the option to increase its share to make the Indian company a wholly owned subsidiary.

SVG Media Group will be incorporated into the Asia Pacific digital marketing agency Columbus to become SVG Columbus. No financial details of the deal were disclosed.

Dentsu said:

With this acquisition, Dentsu aims to enhance synergistic effects through alliances with locally deployed SVG Media Group companies, accelerate growth strategies in the Indian market and establish a leading position in the digital domain in India.

SVG Media Group, which started out as a digital advertising business, describes itself as the largest Indian digital media platform. The company, which is headquartered in Gurugram south west of New Delhi, reported revenue of 680m rupees ($10.5m) in the year ended March 31, 2016. It was founded in 2006 and has around 280 employees.

Dentsu said the impact of the transaction on its financial results for the fiscal year ending December 2017 was expected to be minimal. The advertising company agreed to buy US digital marketer Leapfrog earlier this month.